This invention relates generally to the field of data processing, and more particularly, to cross-referencing techniques for identifying records across multiple applications.
As technology continues to advance and the business environments have become increasingly complex and diverse, more and more companies have relied on various software and eBusiness applications to conduct and manage various aspects of their enterprise business. In general, eBusiness applications are designed to enable a company or enterprise to conduct its business over an interactive network (e.g., Internet, Intranet, Extranet, etc.) with its customers, partners, suppliers, distributors, employees, etc. eBusiness applications may include core business processes and supply chain, back-office operations.
In many industries, the availability and completeness of information is critical to the operation of a business. Many businesses need immediate access to customer information, which can be used to increase customer satisfaction and overall profitability of an enterprise. In order to provide a cohesive customer-centric environment, the customer data residing in an eBusiness application or system is integrated with data residing within various legacy systems, including back office policy, claims, and billing systems. Thus, interfaces between eBusiness applications and legacy operational systems that contain vast stores of valuable customer information have been developed.
Typically, an eBusiness application and a legacy system each includes a database that contains information. In one example, the eBusiness application and the legacy system can be insurance related systems that have insurance related customer information in their databases.
Communications between an eBusiness application and a legacy system can be achieved by the exchange of messages. One type of message is a request by one system for customer data from another system. Another type of message is a response to such a request or an update of customer data from one system to another system.
The messages can be in any type of format that can be processed by the eBusiness and legacy systems. For example, messages can be formatted in a markup language such as Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML describes a class of data objects that are referred to as XML documents, and partially describes the behavior of computer programs that process them. XML is a subset of a markup language known as Standard Generalized Markup Language. XML as referenced herein refers generally to any standard of XML, and specifically to XML 1.0, as set forth on the web site http://www.w3.org.
Often times the information stored in an eBusiness application database is in a different format or arrangement than the related information stored in a corresponding legacy system database. In some systems, customer information associated with an eBusiness application can be stored in a database across several different tables. For example, customer name information can be stored in one table, customer address information can be stored in another table, and customer account information can be stored in yet another table. The related customer information in the legacy system database is stored in a different format, such as a single table.
Thus, communications between an eBusiness application and a legacy system have been difficult because of the different formats of information. Conventional eBusiness applications lack the capability to identify and link records during the execution of different business processes and transactions.
In conventional applications, scripts that hard code links between object ids were required to link or associate records. Each legacy system required one or more separate customized scripts which usually could not be used with any other system or database. Moreover, in some systems, it became necessary to develop a script for each individual record.
What is therefore needed is a technique that enables the cross-referencing or linking of customer information between multiple systems. What is also needed is a technique that reduces the potential for data corruptions and conflicts within an enterprise.